Proton Iriz to be launched in Indonesia in May, “should be cheaper than in Malaysia,” said Proton Indonesia

Less than a year after its local launch, the Proton Iriz looks set to be introduced to the Indonesian market this May. “We will definitely bring it in [to Indonesia] this year. The plan is to launch it in May,” Proton Edar Indonesia (PEI) sales and marketing head Winara Arigayo told the press in Jakarta recently.

There will be minimal differences between the Malaysian and Indonesian versions, according to PEI. Interestingly, Winara believes that the B-segment hatchback will be priced cheaper in Indonesia as compared to Malaysia. “It should be more affordable here. We’ll see how it goes soon,” he said.

By how much, we’ll just have to wait and see. The Preve and Suprima S had both been launched in Indonesia in 2013, but neither carried prices lower than their respective retail prices in Malaysia. Could it be that the potential Iriz SV we spotted earlier is meant for our neighbours?

Preferring to drive cars rather than desks, Hafriz Shah ditched his suit and tie to join the ranks of Malaysia’s motoring hacks. A car’s technical brilliance is completely lost on him, appreciating character-making quirks more. When not writing this ego trip of a bio, he’s usually off driving about aimlessly, preferably in a car with the right combination of three foot pedals and six gears.

Why cheaper in Indonesia? It is because lower tax than in Malaysia. Now people can see that govt didn’t give enough protection to Proton. Yes, there are still protection to our national car but not much during Dr. M era..

In the 80s or even in the early 90s, you can get a brand new Nissan 130Y or a Toyota Corolla for RM20,000. Now, the same car is RM139,000.

In truth, the past 30 years, car prices have come down a lot globally and have NOT gone up due to inflation. It has come down due to economies of scale achieved by car companies and new technology used. This is proven by the fact that you can get a brand new purely Japan made top spec Toyota Camry 2.5 with 10 airbags in the US for US$22,000. That is about RM70,000.

The normal B segment car like the Almera is sold in the US for US$9,999. (RM35,000). After discounts, the Toyota will be sold about US$18k and the Almera about US$8k in the US.

Mind you, this is after Toyota and Nissan of the US has made their margin and profits and the US government has collected taxes and duties from Nissan and Toyota. The direct from factory prices is far cheaper. UMW will get the above 2.5 Camry for US$15,000 from their principal in Japan. As our Camry is CKD, the price is even lower than that.

So, in actual fact, most Malaysians can enjoy cheap and reasonable cars but because of Proton, all the other car prices have been raised up tremendously to protect Proton. We all know MITI controls all the car prices to protect Proton.

Malaysians have already suffered so much. For 30 years, 30 million people suffer so much. We struggle paying for our high car prices all because of one man’s dream of protecting the dying Proton. Proton sucks billions of our LHDN money, money which could be used to build more schools and hospitals.

If we did not have Proton sucking money from LHDN, each state can have an additional 10 fully fledged government hospitals and 10 fully fledged government schools every 10 years being built. But all our LHDN money go to the failing Proton. Every year government gives hundreds of million to Proton as form of grants. Every other year, Proton ask RM billions in help. Recently, even under private hands also (DRB) Proton asked the government to give them free few RM 2 billions from LHDN.

Mr.Kanakuning,maybe the INDON IRIZ got no petrol tank,exhaust pipe,no radiator,no aircon,no music player and central locking.
Anyway,remember the proton grand entry to Turkey years ago?Australia? Indons are better educated now,they are not bodoh,Proton.Those Indons working in Boleh land whats app every damn thing here to their loved ones there,including Anwar’s sodomy.
Proton is on chemotherapy and radiation therapy.There is no hope.

minimum of 70% custom excise duty for any car plus another 10% of sales tax (to be replaced by GST?).

this means a myvi selling at 40K is actually only 24K dealer price (profit margin included).

and for a CBU car with 5,000cc the taxes are in the region of 190% in total. this is why a Jaguar XJL 5.0 selling at over 1.1 million ringgit in semenanjung has a price of abt 420K in langkawi.

unbelievable.

the reason i bought a 1993 iswara as my ride. cost me 3k. a whole lot cheaper to maintain and reliable too, better than a VW i must say. parts are readily available. not fun to drive but efficient enough A-to-B mode of transport.

but somehow still far more better than a spending more than RM100k for a brand new ‘jamban’ made cars WITHOUT ESC/VSC plus ‘unknown’ or ‘poorer’ built quality nowadays (still want a VSC-equipped car, you have to go for the top spec one, minimum price RM136k).

It’s either Proton being plain dumb or happy to be dumb on what the consumers want. This is just a B-segment hatchback car targeting at lower income group moving from motorcycle to a car.
What 5 stars, what handling you are talking about? What is more important to this group of people is reliability and cheap to maintain. Moving from bike to a car is already a big jump in terms of safety. I bet Proton uses anti blast glass and kevlar in their next model.

Conclusion: Proton supporters are stupid lol, support expensive cars and make the rakyat suffer as well. For those who like to support Proton, please go and pay double the tax to Proton, Proton will be thankful to you. The rest of the rakyat should be excluded from excise and import duty when buying other cars, thank you

So, the Preve costs more in Indonesia than it does in Malaysia. The Suprima S is the other way round.

My guess is that hatchbacks are believed to be ‘cheap cars’ in Indonesia. Sedan cars (except taxis) are considered more ‘premium’. Just my guess. It makes sense because the most popular Indonesian LCGCs (Low Cost Green Cars) are all small A-segment hatchbacks.

Proton Indonesia probably knows that the Iriz cannot cost too much or it won’t sell due to the much cheaper LCGCs. The Iriz won’t compete with the LCGCs though, it will go against the Honda Jazz and Ford Fiesta, two popular B-segment hatchbacks there, and also the Toyota Yaris and Daihatsu Sirion (rebadged Perodua Myvi).

If I were Proton, I will license mitsubishi Lancer (those evo456 body) and fit a campro 1.3L 4 speed auto and fuse in some Lotus DNA and sell at Myvi price, then that will really rock the boat. So far all Lotus look seems to be lasting… Think Saga LMSI and Satria GTI. They are cars that never seem to look outdated! What to do? Proton is a car company who is run by people who know nothing about cars!

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